White Olive Tree

Chapter 7

The rain was really heavy.
The stagnant water on the open ground overflowed Song Ran's shoes.  Li Zan was holding the big black umbrella. The wind was strong, but his hand held the umbrella firmly.
She kept a polite distance from him.  The umbrella was wide, but the rain still hit Song Ran's half shoulder.  She doesn't mind.
He sent her to the co-pilot of a military off-road vehicle, and she got into the vehicle.
He went around to the driver's seat and got on the car, put away the big black umbrella, and put it on the back seat.

A string of water stains dripped from the umbrella tip.
Only then did Song Ran realize that his left shoulder was also completely wet.  The dark blue police uniform is really black now.
Li Zan started the car and reminded: "Fasten your seat belt."
"Yes." Song Ran obeyed obediently.
The windshield was covered with rainwater, as if a faucet had been turned on.  The wipers swung wildly.  The side windows were covered with thick rain curtains, making it impossible to see the outside scene clearly.
Song Ran felt that the two of them were sitting in an underwater glass box, quiet and quiet, only the endless wind and rain outside the box.
After driving out of the compound, he remembered to ask, "Where is Beimen Street?"
Song Ran replied, "The Lane of Green."
"En." He tapped the steering wheel with his index finger, and said nothing else.
After all, it is midsummer, and after walking a certain distance with the windows closed, there is a hint of sweltering heat inside the car.  Song Ran touched the fine sweat on her lips, Li Zan looked at her through the car mirror:
"Do you want to turn on the air conditioner?"
"No need." She waved her hand, "I'll get dizzy in an air-conditioned car."
"Motion sickness?" He smiled lightly, "The reporter must be on duty frequently, so what should I do?"
"I'm always trying to find a way to fall asleep." She spoke quickly.
"Then close your eyes and rest. I'll call you when we arrive."
Song Ran: "..."
She doesn't want to sleep.  But she couldn't figure out what to say next.
The carriage fell into silence again.
She looked out the window and bit her lip, feeling a little frustrated.
Li Zan guessed right.  Her little car drove back and definitely floated into the water halfway.
The security area is on the Luoyu Mountain in the southeast of Liangcheng. At first, the walk was smooth. After the terrain fell a little, the streets were full of water, the sewers were full, and the water had nowhere to flow.  Like looting all over the city.  There were people pushing carts in the water in the morning, and they were letting their own way at the moment, not even taking the bus.
The urban area is empty and desolate, with only water.
Military vehicles drove past the waterlogged streets, and the splashes were as high as a ship breaking waves.  Several times it even seemed to submerge the entire car.
Song Ran originally wanted to show the way, but Li Zan seemed to know the terrain very well. Without the navigation, he could clearly distinguish which avenue and which alley.
After walking for a while, she found that he seemed to have a topographical map of Liangcheng in his mind. He avoided low-lying places and walked as high as possible.
Song Ran asked, "Are you from Liangcheng?"
"No. From Jiangcheng."
"Oh. You don't even need navigation while driving."
"Stay here for a long time."
"How long has it been?"
He recalled: "Three or four years."
Right after he finished speaking, a red light appeared ahead.
He stopped the car.
One minute and thirty seconds.  Infinitely long red light.
No vehicles passed by the intersection.  Neither did pedestrians.
The car was quiet, and he silently tapped the steering wheel with his fingers.
Song Ran brushed her hair by her ear, turned her head to look out of the window, and there was only the rain curtain close at hand on the glass.
She looked forward, the wipers swept across, and the red countdown was running.
She suddenly remembered the last countdown, and when she turned her head, he was also staring at the red light counter.
She suddenly said softly, "You saved me. Remember?"
The traffic light just turned green. He turned the steering wheel, turned to look at her, and said, "I remember."
Song Ran said: "I forgot to say thank you to you at the time.... That's why I've been looking for you to thank you."
Li Zan said: "You're welcome. It should be."
His tone was ordinary and casual, not worth mentioning, and he didn't take it as a life-saving grace.  In his view, that was just his duty and mission, just like reporters reporting news and traffic police directing traffic—it should be.
Song Ran had something else to say, but he couldn't.
She took a slight breath. The whole city was damp, and she felt that what she breathed into her lungs was rainwater.
After walking down a street, Li Zan turned the steering wheel again, and Song Ran came back to his senses: "Hey!... You can't go there."
He braked the car and turned to look at her.
Meeting his puzzled eyes, Song Ran suppressed a smile: "...there is a one-way street over there."
He changed gears, reversed the car for a meter or two, changed gears again, and started on the road again. He asked strangely, "When did you change it?"
"The first few weeks."
"Oh." He snorted lightly.
Seeing this, Song Ran also smiled and complained: "Liangcheng has been building subways and roads everywhere in recent years. A good city looks like a big rural construction site. The traffic instructions are also changed every now and then." She said: "Our colleagues every  Moonlight complains about this, and I can write a few social news articles."
At first, Li Zan carefully avoided the puddles on the road, but didn't answer the call. After a few seconds of blankness, he probably sensed something was wrong, so he picked up the topic unhurriedly, and asked, "Are you doing international news?"
"Well. The distinction is not so clear, and it is also done in China." Song Ran asked, "Do you watch Liangcheng Satellite TV?"
"Look." He lowered his head slightly, scratched his temples with his index finger, and said, "It seems to be broadcasting something recently, "The Eastern Kingdom before the War."
Song Ran asked, "Does it look good?"
Li Zan asked back: "You participated?"
"Oh...that show was planned by me....I also recorded most of the information."
Li Zan glanced at her now and said, "It's pretty good."
"Oh." The corners of her lips were slightly curved, and her eyes were bright as if they were shining.
It was raining so heavily outside, and she suddenly realized that she didn't realize that she quite liked the rainy season.  Love it to death.
But a familiar street scene soon appeared outside the window, and it was Beimen Street.
Before reaching Green Alley, the entrance of the alley narrowed, and several family cars were parked in the alley, blocking the way.
Li Zan tried a few times, but couldn't get through.
Song Ran said, "Just stop here."
Li Zan said, "Can I go back?"
"I can go back."
"Okay." He leaned over to give her the umbrella from the back seat, and approached her at once. When he stretched out his hand, he tugged at the ink-colored collar, revealing a section of collarbone.
Song Ran immediately turned her head away like an electric shock. At that moment, she suddenly remembered that his red rope was still with her.  He seems to have forgotten, did not remember.
She... also forgot.
"Here."
She turned her head and took the umbrella: "I'll give it back to you the next time I drive."
"You're welcome. It doesn't matter if you keep it." He smiled because of her excessive politeness.
With a heart as soft as water, she pushed open the car door and opened the big umbrella with all her strength.  The rain was pounding on the umbrella, and she heard him say: "The Boket Tower was damaged in a fire, but it was rebuilt later."
Song Ran was taken aback.
There is an episode of "Eastern Kingdom Before the War" that mentions the Bokota in the city of Ale, saying that the tower has a history of nearly 3,000 years.
After entering the house that day, Song Ran searched for information on the damp desk all night, but there was too little historical information about Dongguo on the Internet, and there was no mention of the fire on the tower.
She couldn't find enough information in the TV station's internal archives.
The weather improved on the morning of the third day, and the plane was notified that it could take off.  Song Ran went to the imperial city.
On the first day she arrived, she searched several libraries, and finally found a paragraph in a yellowed translation of the history of the Eastern Kingdom in the archives of Ran Yuwei's work unit:
"Bokota, now the western suburb of Al City, was built in the 1st century BC and was destroyed in the Al War in 1197 AD. In the next few hundred years, it was rebuilt by several generations of history and archaeologists. It is said that it is the same as the original  Compared with traces, it is not enough.”
There is only a short paragraph of text and no picture records.  The tower that was destroyed nearly 900 years ago has no way of verifying its true face.

Song Ran didn't know how Li Zan knew about this period of history.  Maybe after returning to Liangcheng, he can ask him when driving to the security area.
She sat holding the book in her mother Ran Yuwei's office and read it, waiting for her to get off work after the meeting.
There was a knock on the door halfway. It was Deputy Director Wu under Ran Yuwei.
"Eh? Ran Ran is here?"
"Aunt Wu." Song Ran smiled and stood up.
"How long will you stay this time?"
   "One week."
"Hey, I'll be working in no time. I can't stay for a summer vacation like before."
   "yes."
"I heard from your mother that you went to Dongguo some time ago?"
   "Um."
"It's amazing." Deputy Director Wu boasted.
Song Ran smiled, knowing that it was a polite word.  There are many young people here, who are sent to more dangerous places around the world just after they start their jobs.  It's not unusual for her to be like this.  However, Deputy Director Wu is her mother's old subordinate, watching her grow up, there is a bit of sincerity in her words.
"Have you thought about coming to the Imperial City for development?"
"Not yet."
"I don't think Liangcheng's pond is small."
Song Ran laughed and said, "I'm just a small fish, too."
Ran Yuwei didn't get off work until after six o'clock. On the way home while driving, there was an evening rush hour, and the Second Ring Road was jammed.
At the beginning of July, the imperial city was in midsummer, and the temperature was as high as 41 degrees.  The setting sun scorched the tin carts on the concrete road.
With the windows closed and the air conditioner turned on, there was a scorching smell of leather upholstery.
Song Ran felt severe chest tightness.
Ran Yuwei was sitting in the driver's seat, wearing a white dress, stockings, high heels, and her hair was neatly coiled.  There are pearl earrings and white bluetooth headsets on his ears, and he is talking on the phone, still making various arrangements at work.
The car stopped and went in the long traffic jam, Song Ran was dazzled by the setting sun, and the smell inside the car was mixed with the perfume on Ran Yuwei's body, making it very smelly.  Just as she was about to lower the window, Ran Yuwei muted her phone for a second and said, "Today's PM2.5 value is 280."
With a clasp of Song Ran's fingers, the window went up again and closed tightly.
Ran Yuwei continued on the phone.
After speaking in about ten minutes, the Second Ring Road was still blocked into a parking lot.
Ran Yuwei turned on the radio to listen to the road conditions, but heard an interrupted news that the water level of the Liangcheng section of the Yangtze River exceeded the historical warning line.  Another heavy rain fell in Liangcheng yesterday, and the city was severely flooded, reaching a critical state.
Ran Yuwei said indifferently: "It's like this every year. People in that place eat vegetarian food and don't do business. After twenty years, the city's infrastructure has not been improved."
In 1998, there was a catastrophic flood in Liangcheng.  It was also that year that Yang Huilun's hometown in the countryside was completely flooded due to the breaking of embankments to protect Liangcheng.  She was desperate, and brought the infant Song Yang to the door.
When the flood receded that year, Ran Yuwei went to the Imperial City alone.
Song Ran argued for his hometown, saying, "It's not like what you said."
Ran Yuwei had already practiced her skills at work, and she didn't bother to bother with irrelevant topics even if they disobeyed her. She got back to business and said, "I read your "Eastern Kingdom Before the War"."
Song Ran turned to look at her, waiting for her to give some positive comments.
Ran Yuwei said: "It's too rough. The content is loose, the theme is not clear, and it's pretentious and fresh. It's still new in Liangcheng, but it's not on the table in the whole country."

Song Ran didn't make a sound, his face was flushed by the setting sun.
Ran Yuwei said: "Don't be fooled by the little glory of a small place. If you don't jump out of that circle, you may never see your true self clearly. Whether it is real gold or scrap iron, come to the Imperial City to have a test."
Song Ran was not feeling well. Just as he was about to say something, his nose was itchy.
She immediately raised her head, her nose was bleeding.
"The imperial city is too dry. I can't stand it." She vented, "The air is also bad!"
Summer is hot and sunny, and there is smog. It looks gray.  Like the city of Aar in the desert.